It is a myth that allows people to justify their lack of proactivity, direction, and work.

The creative self is just like our personality – improvable. Our creative ideas can’t be born unless the “creative engine” is fueled. How can you fill it?

Practice!

To encourage the development of your creative skills, I have put together a list of five exercises that will help bring forth your creative side.

These activities aren’t lengthy or complicated, yet they’re exceptional tools for enhancing your out-of-the-box thinking. Pay attention and make sure you implement them immediately to see improvements in your creative side.

1. Use A Dictionary And Three Words

A funny yet extremely challenging creative exercise involves a dictionary and a few words. Open Merriam Webster or use a hardcover dictionary. Pick a random word, write it on a piece of paper, and pick two more words (the ones behind and after your randomly selected word).

Take the three words and write a short story using only these words. It doesn’t have to be a “wow” story – as long as it’s making sense, you’re doing it right!

Twyla Tharp, a successful American writer is vouching for this creativity exercise in her book “The Creative Habit”. She emphasizes the importance of not giving up when challenging words come up, as the toughest combinations are also the most productive for your creative self.

2. Make Up Short Stories

Stories are awesome concepts that are fueled mainly by our creativity. Of course, there are the “real stories”, but even those are altered by people’s imagination and perception.

A great way to exercise your creative abilities is to develop stories using pre-established ground rules. For example, you can write extremely short stories (6 to 12 words long), medium-length ones (a few paragraphs), or you can create a big story (as long as you want to).

Besides exercising your creative skills, you can come up with brilliant stories that more people might enjoy. You can turn these into e-books and sell them online in a digital format!

3. Avoid A Letter While Writing Or Speaking

Have you ever tried to avoid pronouncing or writing a letter while you speak or write something? This exercise is tapping into your subconscious mind. More precisely, your conscious brain communicates a strong intention (avoiding a specific letter). Your subconscious mind receives the intention and immediately starts to “work on it”.

Your subconscious mind isn’t doing all the work. By effectively focusing on this task, your conscious brain is making it all possible because one intention isn’t enough for this exercise to be successful. Try writing 200 words while avoiding the letter “R” (or any other) and feel your brain’s hustle!

4. Write A Haiku

A Haiku is a Japanese-style, 3-lined poem that uses sensory language to illustrate an image or a feeling. The purpose of this exercise is to allow your creative self to explore new boundaries and to develop new skills.

This is how a Haiku poem looks like:

(Source: Wikihow.com)

This exercise brings plenty of benefits to your creative self, and not only:

It improves the vocabulary

You learn to be concise and straight-on-point

It develops critical thinking skills

It improves your writing and communication skills

5. Use Your Non-Dominant Hand To Create A Sketch Or Drawing

You must have heard of this exercise before at least once in your life. Using your non-dominant hand to deal with simple creative tasks will not just exercise your creative skills but will also improve your cognitive abilities.

Our brains are constantly used to depend on the dominant hand for most of the jobs. When you start using your other hand, different parts of your brain will start “working out”. This makes you a much more complex “ruler” of your physical and mental abilities.

Takeaways

Creativity is an activity that every one of us can improve through daily practice. If our suggestions don’t resonate with you, seek other similar activities that exercise your creative side of the brain. Most importantly, seek to be creative in the areas that you absolutely love and enjoy getting involved.

To end this post properly, I’ll help you contemplate on the following brilliant quote:

“Creativity is a habit, and the best creativity is the result of good work habits.”

Thomas Lovecraft runs a small business in California. He likes Pina Coladas and
getting caught in the rain. He is an ornithology lover and an amateur songwriter; he is also a
content strategist at Best Dissertation. Follow him on Twitter.